What's in Bulgaria, anyway?

After New Years in Istanbul, we took the overnight train to Sofia, Bulgaria (Bulgaria is the large yellow outlined country on the map) and met up with Dani and Erika. They are both Italian but met studying Russian and now Erika teaches Russian and English (and French?) in Shumen. We spent a few days wandering around the capital city of Bulgaria, still recovering from the fall of communism in 1989.

Daniela Martini

That's my sister!

Dani and Erika.

Perfecting the "sleeping model" look

Yes, you can find very different food in Bulgaria compared to America...

Dinner at Happy's with Erika's Bulgarian friends (what happened with the Policeman, Erika?...)

The 4 of us flew to Varna, a little town on the Black Sea with some nice beaches. In the summer, very popular for European sunbathers.

And so began Project Feed Varna's Hard-times Street Friends.

...it got a little out-of-hand at times.

The Black Sea!

We stayed at Erika's apartment in Shumen and watched really great Eastern-European MTV-style music videos. And Dani made us mousse!

Chelsea, me, Dani, and Erika

Central heating in a cavernous Shuman church.

Chelsea and I said farewell to Erika and Dani and headed to Veliko Turnovo, a speck on the map and a random suggestion from the friend of a friend of a friend. We were planning on staying one night but ended up staying 3 - what a great little village! Found a lovely place to stay, the quiet Phoenix Hostel, run by a Welsh couple, Nick and Kathy, who make you feel like you're instantly at home.

Land is cheap in Bulgaria, where the average person makes 50 euros/month.

Veliko Tarnovo is built around the Yantra River which winds haphazardly around 4 big hills. The old section of town is filled with beautiful historic buildings, narrow cobbelstone streets. The first fortress was built here in 400AD by the Bizantines and the village was the captial of the 2nd Bulgarian empire until 1393. The most recent Tsarvets Fortress is in the upper right corner of this picture. There is a University here and some industry outside of town, but it's not longer a political center.

We went for a lot of long hikes to other villages.

When the Soviets left in 1989 they took most of their industry with them, leaving many abandoned factories and half-completed buildings which litter the skyline. They also uprooted many farming families and relocated them to industrial centers, like Shumen, forcing them to live in the Bulgarian equivalent of The Projects, which still stand bleakly at the edges of towns.

Exploring Tsarvets Fortress

We hiked along the edge of a gorge to Preobrazhenski Monastery, built in 1360. In a beautiful location below huge rock cliffs (many Romanians come here to climb), with a great view. Zahari Zograf painted the"Circle of Life" on this chapel in 1850.

Preobrazhenski Monastery

The view from the Preobrazhenski Monastery

Lunch at the convent across from the monastery...you have to walk down through to gorge to get here. I guess that makes sense! Great climbing over here, too.

Kathy and Nick

Back in Sofia...remnants of another time.

Pecto-pat = restaurant. Cyrillic alphabet was interesting to practice. It was originally developed , we were told, by the church (St. Cyril) in the 9th century to prevent different religions from spreading into the area.